Dinoscopus

Friday, January 30, 2009

Following
in the steps of Our Lord (Jn. XVIII, 23) and St. Paul (Acts, XXIII, 5),
Archbishop Lefebvre gave his Society the example of never so cleaving
to God's Truth as to abandon respect for the men holding God's
Authority. In the midst of last week's media uproar, surely aimed
rather at the Holy Father than at a relatively insignificant bishop,
here is a letter written to Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos on January 28 by
that bishop:

To His Eminence Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos

Your Eminence

Amidst
this tremendous media storm stirred up by imprudent remarks of mine on
Swedish television, I beg of you to accept, only as is properly
respectful, my sincere regrets for having caused to yourself and to the
Holy Father so much unnecessary distress and problems.

For me,
all that matters is the Truth Incarnate, and the interests of His one
true Church, through which alone we can save our souls and give eternal
glory, in our little way, to Almighty God. So I have only one comment,
from the prophet Jonas, I, 12:

"Take
me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you;
for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you."

Please
also accept, and convey to the Holy Father, my sincere personal thanks
for the document signed last Wednesday and made public on Saturday.
Most humbly I will offer a Mass for both of you.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

As
of course a large number of readers already know, a Decree dated Jan.
21 from the Congregation of Bishops in Rome (not Ecclesia Dei)
"remitted" the "excommunicating" Decree of July 1, 1988, so that the
four Society of St. Pius X bishops then declared to be "excommunicated"
are now "re-incommunicated". In my opinion this latter Decree is a
great step forward for the Church without being a betrayal on the part of the SSPX.

It
is a great step forward for the Church because if the Church's problem
ever since Vatican II has been a separation of Catholic Authority from
Catholic Truth, with this Decree Catholic Authority has taken a
decisive step back towards their re-union. Just as after the Motu
Proprio of July, 2007, nobody could any longer say that the true rite
of Mass was banned by Rome, even if they can still behave as though it
is, so too now nobody can any longer say that Catholics holding to
Tradition are "outside the Church". Certainly a number of Conciliarists
will go on behaving as though they are, but they clearly no longer have the Pope on their side only. The difference is enormous!

Of
course there is still a long way to go before the neo-modernists in
Rome, conscious or unconscious, realize - if ever! - how they mistake
the Faith, but as the old proverb says, "Rome was not built in a day",
and it will not be repaired in a day. Nevertheless "Half a loaf is
better than no bread" - ask a hungry man! - so meanwhile let us know
how to thank God for this major shift of the rudder of the Conciliar
Church. Let us then thank the Blessed Virgin Mary whose intervention
will have been decisive, thanks to the nigh on one and three quarter
million rosaries offered to her for this intention, by a number of
yourselves amongst others. And let us thank and pray for Benedict XVI
and all his collaborators who helped to push through this Decree,
despite, for instance, a media uproar orchestrated and timed to prevent
it.

However, by asking for and
accepting such reconciliation with the Conciliar Church, is not the
SSPX threatening to lead the way back into Conciliarism? In no way! No
doubt some Conciliarists in Rome are hoping that the Decree will serve
to draw the SSPX back into the fold of Vatican II, but the Decree itself, as it stands,
commits the Society to nothing more than to entering into those
discussions to which the Society committed itself in 2000 when it
proposed the liberation of the Mass and the ending of the
"excommunications" as preconditions in the first place.

Then
are such discussions without danger? Certainly not! But St. Peter says
we should always be "ready to satisfy every one that asks you for a
reason of that hope which is in you" (I Pet. III, 15). How can the SSPX
not rejoice in the opportunity to lay out in Rome, before the Roman
authorities themselves, the profound doctrinal reasons which we believe
to be at the root of the Church's present distress? Woe unto us
Catholics of Tradition if we were not ready to give reason for that
hope which is in us for the rescue of the Church! So continue to pray
the Rosary, dear Catholics, for the possible realization and outcome of
such discussions, so that they may serve first, last and foremost, the
interests of God, of God, of God. Kyrie eleison.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Saturday, January 17, 2009

When
I am out driving somewhere in unknown territory and I come to a fork in
the road, and I take the road to the left and it turns out to be a dead
end, and I take the road to the right and it turns out to be a dead
end, then unless I give up going anywhere, will I not turn back to the
last previous fork or junction and look for any other road than the one
I just came down?

To save "capitalism"
in the USA, the outgoing Republican Administration has resorted to such
a massive degree of Government intervention and control as to resemble
more and more closely a "communist" government. And, just before the
incoming Democrat Administration comes in, it gives all the appearances
of resorting to the same "communist" solution for the "capitalist"
problem. But ever since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, has not
Communism been evidently a loser? In which case do not both
Administrations resemble the motorist who turns from one dead end to
another?

Of course just as diehard
Communists will claim that "true" Communism was never given a fair
trial, so many believers in "Capitalism" will today claim that only
abuses of the system are forcing it to morph into Government control.
But just as the worst horrors of Communism do not contradict, but
follow from, its basic principles, so, given poor old human nature, was
not free enterprise Capitalism bound to morph into that finance
Capitalism now obliging the Governments to take over? After all, cannot
Capitalism, named from capital - money - be defined as a maximizing of
freedom for all citizens to make as much money as they will and can?
And how could that not end in the stronger devouring the weaker until
they become TBTF: too big to fail?

Then
in what direction might one look for a third road, leading to neither
implicit nor explicit atheistic materialism? How about the Sermon on
the Mount? - "You cannot serve God and Mammon"... "Seek ye first the
kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things (economic goods)
shall be added unto you"...(Mt. VI, 24, 33). But who wants the
solutions of God? Kyrie eleison.